Although Viet Nam has made significant achievements in implementing the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), the development rate of ethnic minority communities remains low and disparities remain, the Annual Ethnic Minority Development Forum heard today in Ha Noi.

Today the Government of Viet Nam is organising a conference on the establishment of the Viet Nam Panel on Climate Change (VPCC), including the country’s leading scientists on climate change impacts and climate change adaptation as well as mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. The conference also announced the “Viet Nam Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (SREX Viet Nam)”. This is the first major collaborative scientific analysis on climate change by Vietnamese researchers.

Viet Nam’s efforts to accelerate green growth were boosted today with the launch of a new joint project in the framework of MPI, UNDP and USAID partnership to advance Vietnam’s Green Growth Strategy. At the launching ceremony of the new 4-year US$4.128 million initiative, Vice-Minister of the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), Mr. Nguyen The Phuong, was joined by the UNDP Resident Representative in Viet Nam, Ms. Pratibha Mehta and the US Ambassador to Viet Nam, Mr. Ted Osius.

A seminar today highlighted the value of Multi-dimensional Poverty (MDP) methods to the governance and delivery of public services. Representatives from Ho Chi Minh City’s authorities, the central government and the National Assembly gathered in the City to discuss plans to implement the MDP in the City and useful lessons for the National MDP process.
The seminar on Multidimensional Poverty Measurement in Ho Chi Minh City was jointly hosted by the City’s Steering Committee for Poverty Reduction and Improved Household Livelihoods and the UN Development Programme (UNDP), in collaboration with the Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI).

UNDP and the National Assembly observed Human Rights Day today by discussing the first ever legal review of the new provisions in the 2013 Constitution. Today’s discussion also covered the international conventions on human rights to which Viet Nam is a party, as well as the role of the National Assembly in human rights promotion and protection.

“Amending the Penal Code: A step towards the implementation of the 2013 Constitution” topped the agenda of 2014’s second Legal Policy Dialogue today in Ha Noi. Representatives of National Assembly committees, the Ministry of Justice, social organizations and UNDP in Viet Nam attended the Dialogue.

The curent status of dioxin contamination at Bien Hoa airbase, one of the three dioxin hotspots in Viet Nam, and the plan for further action were shared at a workshop in Bien Hoa today conducted by the Office of National Steering Committee 33 and the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

(NFMS) and Reference Levels (RELs) for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) were the focus of a workshop hosted in Ha Noi by the UN-REDD Programme in collaboration with the Viet Nam Administration of Forestry (VNFOREST). The workshop lasts from 20 to 22 October 2014.

Today, with only 450 days left to reach the Millennium Development Goals(MDGs), key representatives in National Assembly, Government, academia and development partners gathered in Ha Noi to discuss key “bottlenecks” that are hindering MDGs progress in ethnic minority areas and suggest solutions to accelerate the progress.

To increase climate resilience and create opportunities for continued poverty reduction and sustained human development, Viet Nam must further strengthen resettlement programmes and eliminate restrictions on and disincentives for the mobility of people. This is the core premise of a UN policy discussion paper on Migration, Resettlement and Climate Change presented at a workshop in Ha Noi today.

Persistent vulnerability threatens human development, and unless it is systematically tackled by policies and social norms, progress will be neither equitable nor sustainable, says the 2014 Human Development Report (HDR) presented in Viet Nam today by the UN Development Programme in collaboration with the Viet Nam Academy of Social Sciences.

Today, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), released the first-ever comprehensive report on the legal and social circumstances faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) persons and the civil society organizations that work for LGBT rights in Vietnam. The release coincides with the third annual Viet Pride campaign being celebrated in Hanoi, August 1 -3,under the theme ‘Together.’

More than 900 ethnic minority households in Viet Nam’s central coastal province of Thanh Hoa have escaped poverty and had their lives enriched thanks to a UNDP-backed project to recover a traditional occupation and use of a natural resource for application in a wide range of industries.

Today’s forum on how to further reduce poverty among ethnic minority people in Viet Nam highlighted the need to empower people and develop culturally-appropriate understandings of development processes.

“Implementation of the new Constitution 2013 in the process of legal and judicial reform in Viet Nam” topped the agenda of the 10th Legal Partnership Forum held today by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

The results of the 2013 nationwide local governance survey launched today reveals that women, the poor, ethnic minorities and those without governance connections are less satisfied than fellow citizens with the quality of local governance, even within the same district or village.